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Hanging in the White Mountain National Forest

I recently spent about a week backpacking in the White Mountation National Forest, with sons Quantum Cat, and Hebrephrentic Lab Hamster. We all carried HH Explorers, Potomac underquilts, and MacCat Deluxe tarps. We hiked from a trail head at the south end of Franconia Notch, north through river trails to connect to the AT, then east to summit Mt. Washington, and back.

For the most part the vegetation is quite dense and every night we needed to explore a bit to find trees far enough apart to hang. Here we're hanging all nicely in a row, the only time we found pairs of suitable trees that close.

A couple of nights the trees I found were not far enough part to make the ridgeline taut. To tighten it up and so get the netting out of my face I had to make do with materials at hand. I use an old contact lens case to carry vitimin Advil, and wrapping the ridgeline around it a couple of times tightened things up nicely. The caps on these were enough to keep the whole thing from unraveling.

Along the river paths and up near ponds the bugs were intense. Intense. We'd hang the bags, cook the meal, and retreat to the security of the HH enclosure. Temps ran to 40s at night. We were snug with the Potomacs below, and kept dry from the evening showers under the MacCats. I found I liked to put my Thermarest seat under my posterior. Helped to level things out a little.